A Risky Winter for Businesses

If you’re running a business, then you’re likely (and rightly) concerned about what could happen this winter. Today we’re taking a look at some of the pressures your business could be facing this winter, and ways you can try to counter them.

Growing Costs

It’s an unfortunate truth that this winter is going to be costly for all of us. Utility bills are set to rise, the cost of food is going up and inflation means your money is buying less every day.

This means a big bump in the running costs for your business – if you have a shop, it’s going to be more costly to keep the lights and heating on, to keep the tills operating, to store your merchandise – especially if it requires refrigeration. This effect is magnified if you’re a hospitality business, with the increased energy costs of a kitchen and bar, and the expectation that you’ll be providing a comfortable environment for customers for a longer period.

And of course your suppliers are also experiencing these pressures – you can expect to see costs rising across the board, from your landlord, to your delivery drivers to your cloud computing services.

Squeezed Revenue

On top of your own costs, you can’t forget that your customers are also facing similar pressures, and this means less money to spend. Depending on your industry and your customers, you may see a real reluctance to spend money over the coming winter. People economise on luxuries to pay for the essentials, so if you’re a grocer you may not see much impact, but if you retail high end kitchen surfaces you may see a glut of people putting off that remodel for six months, leaving you with a big shortfall.

Squeezed Ambitions

One of the worst things about crises like this is the fact that they force you to put ambitions to the side, to hunker down rather than experiment.

It’s obviously important to control costs, but putting your ambitions to one side entirely is a mistake that could let your rivals ahead. The most important thing to do is make sure your growth ambitions are carefully costed, take account of the pressures you and your customers are under and don’t expose you to undue risks. Find a way to explore growth under those terms rather than abandoning it altogether. Experts in the field can help: growth strategy consultants can help you find safe, sustainable ways to grow your business in line with your core values.